Have any hyde parkers tried CocoRico?
with all the talk of bear and other exotic meats recently, I swung by this place on saturday early evening hoping to get some wild boar for takeout to a picnic but it was already closed. took a look at the menu, pretty intersting but also a little pricy. Rene, AOkrent, El Taco, other hyde parkers out there -anyone try it?
It's in the 55th street coop lot, on the south end, by the hardware store.
here's something about it that was on chicago magazines web page recently:
Cocorico Rotisserie (5428 S. Lake Park Ave.; 773-684-8085) could only exist in offbeat Hyde Park. The takeout gameyes, gamespot offers wild boar legs, buffalo, squab, whole goats, goose, suckling pigs, guinea hen. Anything that grazes or flies, you name it. Nothing says South Side like grabbing a good Scottish hare to go.
zim
Jul 08, 2002 10:08AM
My wife ate their recently. The owner is the brother of the fellow who owns Bonjour Bakery at the other end of that shopping center. They're both French. My wife ordered a rotisserie chicken sandwich (not too adventurous) and due to language barrier or general confusion got a quarter chicken that cooled down as we walked out to the Point, where we realized the ordering error, and the 1/4 chicken proved a bit difficult to eat in that situation.
It was quite good, though, and I've heard several very positive reports about the place. I've been meaning to get back myself.
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I too have been intrigued by the venison, wild boar, and poussin advertised on the menu. I've only tried the chicken though. Well seasoned and especially greasy, which is not necessarily bad in a chicken. I asked about doing a wild game buffet sometime, and they said the more exotic stuff needs a few days advance order. Now I am waiting for the right occasion to host such a buffet. Unfortunately I can't come up with many meat eating friends. Another chowhound event perhaps?
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I have yet to try the game at CocoRico. My previous visits were at the end of the day so they were out of a lot of stuff. I did try the whole roasted chicken ($11 for Amish, $6 for nondenominational) and was pretty happy with it. You can get it seasoned with Italian spices or herbes de Provence.
The other day I went around lunchtime and found out they never have prepared game, its special order only. I suggested it might be a good idea to do maybe one a day (Monday boar, Tuesday hare, etc) but Im not sure I made much of an impression. Maybe if other people suggest the same thing theyll believe its a good idea. They have a printed menu of the exotic meats but no extra copies (same thing several months ago). Most of the minimum orders are quite large, depending on the species and cut. They dont strike me as being particularly aggressive businesspeople (which I like).
I tried a cold roast beef sandwich and was very pleased with it. They started with a fresh baguette, likely from Bonjour, toasted and spread with an excellent Dijon mustard (Ill have to find out the brand, it was really good). The beef was sliced to order and was pretty decent. Also on the sandwich was some very nice romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, and thinly sliced green bell pepper. I dont know if it would make my top ten list (in preparation!) but it was surprisingly good.
Ill have to try the pork ribs, they look tasty (the ends are frenched). I think besides chicken and beef this is the only meat they regularly serve. They also have several prepared hot side dishes like ratatouille, lentils, and a gratin. Also some salads and a few desserts. Kind of an odd little place, I wish them well.
As A Okrent suggested this could be an interesting place for a get-together. One of these days Ill try to post the game menu and we can talk about it. Unfortunately I dont think bear is on the list.
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Is there enough interest in the old bear to arrange an outing to our game shop on Argyle, perhaps with a phase two in hyde park for cocorico and jimmy's? I think we're about due for a gettogether. Maybe some saturday or sunday afternoon in the next month?
seth
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